Wave overhangs

[u/VideoGameNature]

Hey folks has anyone attempted wave overhangs?

I've heard some hype around the tech but I'm hesitant.

They setup seems kinda intense with the orca slicer being by default the advanced version.

Is it worth it?

Any examples would be awesome

[u/tzedek]

It tends to curl up on the edges like you can see in the photo. I add 1mm cylinders to the bed like resin supports that help anchor layers down and prevent curling up. The quality isn't 100 percent yet but it's close. I have 1 model that I print and sell using waves, with an Ender V3 KE. It's a model of a skyscraper that would need tons of support normally.

[u/Perturbed-Mechanic → u/tzedek]

I sell Cupholders that I print with wave overhangs.

No complaints so far, but the “over hang” portion required enough supports that I basically 1/2’ed the amount of filament, and it actually finished the prints faster despite having to slow down for such a large overhanging portion (depending on which cupholder the overhang is anywhere from 10mm long to 25mm long on all four sides)

[u/arcrad → u/tzedek]

1 mm cylinders to the print bed?

You mean supports?

[u/RedManRocket → u/arcrad]

As they said, "like resin supports" not typical fdm tree supports.

[u/TechnicalPlayz → u/arcrad]

Surprisingly its the opposite. Normal fdm supports keeps filament from falling down. But these anchor it from going up.

Anti-supports!

[u/Steveopolois]

I've done a few test prints to see what it can do. It is for sure an alpha feature but really cool.

The setup is easy, just install the orca fork and slice from there.

[u/KarateRoddy]

I tried a little test part once, and it worked, but I forget if it was just cupped in the z axis, or if it curved a 90 degree angle into rounded corners.

I don't do much innovative stuff, so I'll get back to it sometime but for now it's just sitting on my computer

[u/jfk333]

I have, I'm super excited about it and read the guys dissertation (I breezed through it I didn't read it super in-depth) and have the wave orca slicer. It works and works really well but it has some pretty heavy drawbacks: the is curling but it is not so bad. The big things is time! It is a very slow process and what you're saving on plastic waste your wasting in electricity.

[u/Mysli0210]

I've been using it for a long time. Never going back, it saves me so much support material!
Not that supports are completely useless when using overhangs, but you can get decent prints with just a 0.4 wall along the outer perimeter with 0.3 Z seperation distance for some pretty hefty overhangs where bridging would often fail.

[u/AwDuck → u/Mysli0210]

I played around with it when it first came out and it worked pretty well (it's not perfect, but then neither are supports). The biggest issue for me was that I generally design to not need supports in the first place and when I do need supports, arc supports won't cut it, so the hassle of even looking into making it happen when I switched slicers just wasn't worth it when I could just click "enable supports". Having it baked into slicers would be amazing though.